Embrace - Worth it?

[NecronomiKane]

Just started my first play-through and I understand the basic rules, embrace someone for a more experience, which will help you become stronger and level up faster, but also is detrimental to the overall well being of an area.

Without getting too spoiler-y, if I embrace, say, 1 or 2 people per area, will I definitely miss the 'good' ending?

I messed up an interaction with a pillar of a community, I thought charming her would let me get the best of both worlds, but it ended up being the death of her... somehow... so now I'm concerned I'm already stuck on a path to a bad ending.

[asarokk]

I will do my best to keep this as spoiler free as possible. Before I begin, from what you've said the information I do specifically mention is something you should know by now (I'll still censor it) but if not, I do apologize in advance.

Unfortunately mesmerizing can sometimes lead to unfortunate consequences. Dorothy Crane is one of them. The reason for this has never been properly explained in-game (nor by developers as far as I know), but theoretically I believe it's because Dorothy used to be a member of a communist resistance group in Romania and even in London she's still living a double life using unethical means to help her district by taking advantage of what she learned in her former life.

Since she's never quite herself, Jonathan's poor choice of words "You will forget all about this" when mesmerizing her will lead to the unexpected consequences of Dorothy getting completely lost. Essentially forgetting who she is, who she's pretending to be, what she's supposed to be doing and why. Which leaves her completely vulnerable for feral Skals to pray upon.

Censored text regarding Dorothy's backstory and why charming her has unexpected consequences.

Many have cursed the developers in making this decision, but it does serve a narrative purpose. Which you will find out later, should you choose to continue regardless of the consequences.

There are four possible endings, two of them good and two bad. Fortunately for you, charming Dorothy does not automatically lock you out of either good ending. Let's call them Good ending A and Good ending B to make matters simple.

There are several specific conditions regarding the other community pillars (besides sparing or charming Dorothy) or notable persons of interest, needed to unlock Good ending A. Others involve a decision of a more personal nature for Jonathan's future and district status. But unless you're playing on story mode, you cannot embrace any citizens under any circumstances.

Good ending B doesn't require any specific conditions other than limit Jonathan's drinking to only a few citizens and avoiding letting any of the districts collapse.

For the record, I don't know how many citizens are safe to consume, even 1 per district might be too many. Even if you don't let any of the districts collapse, you'll lock yourself out of Good ending B if you embrace too many citizens.

There's a considerate health risk in districts without its pillar, but if you're able to do what you can for the citizens (healing them, helping them), you can avoid its collapse.

[wendigo211]

From what I've read elsewhere you can embrace <5 (including the priest during a certain fight in a cemetery) and still get the good ending. I embraced 4 and I was fine.

For Dorothy, it could be that she requires a mesmerization of level 2 and Reid only has a level of 1 at that point. I.e. he's not strong enough to do it properly. Any other time you try to deal with a pillar you have a mesmerization level that's equal to or greater than theirs.

[asarokk]

Originally posted by wendigo211:

From what I've read elsewhere you can embrace <5 (including the priest during a certain fight in a cemetery) and still get the good ending. I embraced 4 and I was fine.

For Dorothy, it could be that she requires a mesmerization of level 2 and Reid only has a level of 1 at that point. I.e. he's not strong enough to do it properly. Any other time you try to deal with a pillar you have a mesmerization level that's equal to or greater than theirs.

If you don't have the required mesmerize level, you cannot mesmerize. Every attempt to charm Dorothy, will result the same way.

But thank you providing a number for how many citizens Jonathan can consume without triggering a bad ending. Very informative.

[NecronomiKane]

Originally posted by asarokk:

Unfortunately mesmerizing can sometimes lead to unfortunate consequences. Dorothy Crane is one of them. The reason for this has never been properly explained in-game (nor by developers as far as I know), but theoretically I believe it's because Dorothy...

I did think it was a bit aggressive the way Dr. Reid was growling at her to 'forget everything', rather than just focusing on the blackmailing. So maybe this was just more of a botched first attempt than anything. Just wish I had a little more warning.

I think at this point I'll be content with "good ending B", I just need to put in more work with the Whitechapel district, since what I did almost destroyed it. I also learned that sleeping just to level up is a BAD idea, time marches on and if I haven't got all my ducks in a row things can get out of control quickly. Need to make sure I have completed as much as I can before resting.

Originally posted by wendigo211:

From what I've read elsewhere you can embrace <5 (including the priest during a certain fight in a cemetery) and still get the good ending. I embraced 4 and I was fine.

Okay, I can work with this. While I don't want to play judge, jury and executioner, I do have a couple of people in mind that might fit the bill for a good snack and I don't think they'll be missed too much. It's going to be fun seeing what kind of chaos I accidentally cause.

[asarokk]

Originally posted by NecronomiKane:

I did think it was a bit aggressive the way Dr. Reid was growling at her to 'forget everything', rather than just focusing on the blackmailing. So maybe this was just more of a botched first attempt than anything. Just wish I had a little more warning.

I think at this point I'll be content with "good ending B", I just need to put in more work with the Whitechapel district, since what I did almost destroyed it. I also learned that sleeping just to level up is a BAD idea, time marches on and if I haven't got all my ducks in a row things can get out of control quickly. Need to make sure I have completed as much as I can before resting.

There was literally no warning. I don't think anyone expected it to go wrong.

Going to sleep does not actually give you any experience though mate. Killing enemies, completing quests (or investigations) and embracing people gives you experience. The amount of experience gained from drinking blood depends on the "quality" of it. The more important the citizen, the higher the quality. Uncovering the hints about them will increase the highest possible amount of experience you can squeeze out of each individual.

The only purpose of going to sleep is to move the timeline one day (or one night) forward and make new investigations become available to you.

In the time you're sleeping the result of your decisions or inaction the previous day will be reflected in the districts, as their status updates. So make sure to complete everything you can before going to bed or it might not be available anymore. The health of any sick citizens will deteriorate without treatment. Worst case scenario, citizens that are gravely ill may die from continued lack of medical treatment.

Don't worry, the districts you haven't set foot in yet won't be affected.

[NecronomiKane]

Originally posted by asarokk:

Going to sleep does not actually give you any experience though mate.

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I wasn't sleeping to gain experience, I was sleeping to level up. Like to save the points I had spent to 'evolve'. Is there a way to do that without sleeping?

[asarokk]

Ah, I see. I also might have jumped the gun there a little.

No unfortunately the workbench is only for upgrading your weapons, while going to bed is the only way to upgrade your skills, even equipment related skills like your medicine bag and max amount of bullets you can keep on you which is even more bizarre than not being able to access the skill menu any other way.

[Faded]

I would say just be a strong vampire for your first play through to learn the game. And if you really like the game you can do multiple runs, or just watch the different endings on youtube.

On my first run I embraced everyone I could. Keep in mind all of the ending are cool, so it’s not like you messed up or anything no matter why ending you get.